Important Things to Consider Before Hiring a Web Designer

Important Things to Consider Before Hiring a Web Designer

Are you looking to expand your business to increase your revenue? Designing and building a website is a great tool to help provided you observe important things to consider before hiring a web designer. We are Cloud Vertix—a group of professional digital marketing experts and web designers. We are here to offer you some tips on how to select a web designer or a web designing company to design and build your website. You should always consider a company with a great portfolio before looking to design and build a website 

Connection of Graphic Designer and Web Designer

You need to find out who the graphic designer or website designer has worked with in the past. Take a look at some samples and actually search the internet so you can see some of the work that they’ve done. Are their websites user-friendly? Do you get the point of what they’re looking to accomplish? Are the company’s missions and values displayed on the website or the right type of graphics? 

Some other things to do would be to get references and find out how that graphic designer or web designer was to work with. Were they easy to work with? Could they finish the job on time? Those are great questions to ask when selecting a designer.  

So, if you’re looking to hire a quality web designing expert, we have some great tips for selecting a graphic designer or a web designer to help you expand your eCommerce entrepreneurial startups. 

Why You Need to Hire an Expert Web Designer?

Some common questions come ahead that are:  

    • Does Your Website Builder Have a Commercial and Marketing Feeling?  
    • Do you want to acquire customers?  
    • Make a living off your website? 
    •  Is it extra income, or is it just a website to show off your hobby to the outside world?  

With any website where generating income is actually a factor, you should look for a web builder who breathes commerce and preferably has a marketing background. The mistake that many people make is that building a beautiful website will automatically generate income. Nevertheless, the website must have an inviting and persuading design. We also call it converting design because it converts the sales leads. People must be able to navigate easily on your website, the “Don’t make me think,” and make a purchase or leave their details at your doorstep.  

SEO-friendly Design is a Must-have 

In addition, the foundation of visibility – SEO – must be solid. The technology must be good and super fast. You also want to be able to easily adapt something in the future, and your website should not fall apart within 5 years of building, overtaken by technology. A website that does not achieve its goal is simply not good. So, make sure your web builder breathes marketing and knows how to sell stuff. 

Designer Should Make It a Selling Platform 

You might say, “Well, I’m not selling stuff, I just have a blog.” Well, let us tell you something, you’re always selling something. In the case of a blog, you’re still selling your stories to people to read them. If you sell products, it’s obvious you’re selling your products. If you showcase your service, you are selling yourself or your service to your website visitors. Make no mistake, this is very important. Your web builder should know how marketing works. 

What is His or Her Track Record of 100 Own Websites? 

Let us explain this: of course, you have to like the portfolio they have, but they have built someone else’s dream and been successful from someone else’s drive. A much more important question that 99% of people overlook when looking for a web builder is that they don’t seem to understand that the personal projects of the web builder himself are way more interesting.  

    • Do they have their e-commerce s?  
    • Do they have their project websites? 
    • Do they have some prototypes?

If they practice what they preach and really know how online marketing works and how persuasive design works, they should have their own projects that generate income for them. Ask your web builder if they make money with their own projects. This is way more important than you might think. Because how is somebody going to help you if they don’t practice what they preach on their own websites? How do they know that what they advise you actually works 

What Team We Have? 

Not to boast or anything, but to give you an example: we have a web builder team here at Cloud Vertix. Each member of our team has their personal website. Two of them are e-commerce sites that sell physical products. Three of them are comparison websites, two of them are servicing websites, and four are blogs. All of them combined to give them a nice income to live on. That’s apart from our clients who hire us to help them with SEO, digital marketing, and persuasive designs. 

How Good is He/She at Communicating with You? 

This is a very important tip, do not underestimate this one. Many of our current clients switched to us because their previous web designers couldn’t communicate with their web designer or web builder properly. You will notice this right from the start. For a better and non-intrusive communication: 

    • Leave a message 
    •  Send them an email 
    • Give them a call 
    • Give them a Reminder

There you see how quickly they respond to your inquiry. Do they respond through email? Oh, that’s already a bad start. A good web designer or web builder will immediately pick up the phone and give you a personal call so you can get to know them and they can ask the right questions. Communication is vital in the long run. It can be very frustrating if your web designer keeps making the same mistakes. 

Your web designer: 

1. Is doing a lot based on assumptions. “Oh, I thought you meant this.” 

2. Almost or never calls you to have a chat on the phone instead of email or texting, resulting in inefficient emails and text messages just to make some point clear. 

3. Is not being constructive and motivating. Trust me, entrepreneurship brings a lot of pressure, and negative people to work with is like sucking you dry. Don’t do that, ever. 

4. Is not able to set the right expectations. Then a client says, “Well, I never know when he’s actually going to do this because I have emailed and asked, but I do not have a response, so he says he’s going to pick it up later in two weeks. I don’t know what I’m working with…”   

What to Do in Such a Situation? 

If you notice that your web designer/web builder is doing that, please hire someone else. The optimal one is talking in technical terms and not being able to explain himself properly. When you have a relationship with a web designer like that, you always feel stupid to ask things. Here you should also listen to your intuition. We often hear clients say, “Well, it didn’t feel right from the start because we couldn’t follow what he was saying, and we didn’t understand his technical terms. It didn’t feel right, I thought, you know, these guys aren’t just social, they don’t know what they’re saying, they don’t know how to connect with people, but it started to play tricks on me in the long run.” A lot of miscommunication, and a lot of assumptions, and everything started to go sideways from there.

Does the Web Designer or Web Builder Dare and Counter You? 

As an extension of the communication part, it is very important if you can experience how much knowledge your web designer has. Does he dare to speak to you about it? You can easily test this by asking some questions about online marketing and a strategy you should take with your website, business, and target audience. This is the way to check if he or she has some backbone. You should ask the same questions about your website to other web builders and designers. This way, you can compare the answers and find the right person. An expert in this case would give you the right answers based on his experience with other clients and the current marketing trends on the net. 

Example  

An automated booking process that automatically fills your agenda might sound very good but might not work in your particular business for your particular target audience. Because maybe you are very good in the sales process, calling a customer and making the first appointment change to something much bigger. The web designer should be able to advise you on the right strategy based on his years of experience and contact with clients by asking them what is working on their websites. When they try and work on their projects with trial and error, they know exactly what works right now for your website. 

How is the Website of the Website Builder Himself? 

Does he only have a Fiverr account or only a LinkedIn profile, or does he have a website? When you look at it, do you say, “Wow, this is amazing!”? It should be a playground of possibilities, visual effects, and the crème de la crème of websites. Now, a common excuse we hear is, “Well, I’m too busy with my clients; I don’t have time for my own website!” we understand and know how that works, but you really should make time for that because it is your only way to show people how awesome you are at building websites. In our opinion, it is pure nonsense. This is because developing someone else’s website is way easier than creating your brand and your own website.  

Create an imagery Story 

Ask the questions that really matter: Who am I? Where am I going? Where am I from? What is my goal? Those are the real core questions that a web builder should really ask himself before getting clients. A couple of days ago, I walked through a garden of someone. In his garden, there was a big sign that said: “Hire me! I’m a gardener, and I want to work!” But when I looked at his own garden, I was like, “Oh wow, I do not want this guy to work in my garden, never!” Why would I hire someone whose own garden is a mess? If you’re doubting about this one, please don’t hesitate, follow your gut, and don’t go with this web designer. 

Avoid Dragger Dropper  

If a web builder promises to create a website for only $300, what he does is grab a template, change some colors, change some pictures, put your logo in it, and voila, your website is done. If you don’t want to have customers, this is an awesome way to get yourself a website with no customers and no conversion. Your dream will never become a reality. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Cloud Vertix has encountered a lot of clients with this kind of website. Looking at the backend, it is just not well-created. The SEO doesn’t fit, it’s not built for the future, you cannot create anything else on it because things will break if you try to add more stuff, and it’s not scalable. 

Piece of Advice For Entrepreneurs  

As an entrepreneur, you have to get yourself in the game for the long run. The first impression you make on people is really important. A bad website gives a bad impression. Most of the time, you cannot repair that impression. Invest a little bit more money in your dream and brand and try to find a good web designer/web builder.  

So, if somebody says, “Hey, for 300 bucks, I’ll have your website ready tomorrow,” it is time to consider if you want to spend money on that or save your money, put it in a bank account, and come back later when you have the right amount of money to really go for it. Please consider this one; don’t get fooled by these cheap offers. 

To be completely independent, you should ask the web builder to set up the website in a CMS with all functionalities you might need in the future. For example, if you have a shop, ask for an e-commerce integration. If you have a blog, ask for a blog integration. You should be able to upload new products, add blog posts, change pictures, and manage orders all by yourself. Ask if they will teach you how to use the CMS and give you all the necessary documentation and login details. This is very important to save time and money in the future. 

Conclusion  

In conclusion, these seven tips should help you find the right web designer or web builder for your project. You should remember to hire someone with a marketing background. You must conduct a track record of their own successful websites. Your observational glance should be on excellent communication skills. Does he have the ability to challenge your ideas with a well-maintained personal website at realistic pricing? It will explain the ability to make you independent with a CMS. You can ensure by considering these factors that your website will be a valuable tool for achieving your goals.  

Cloud Vertix offers aesthetic web designing services with pristine visual quality servicesWe are here to help you with your digital index.  

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